Australia’s Merino Wool Industry Clipped by City Cuts

By

Caroline Henshaw

Jan 2, 2013 9:25 am EDT

Hard times in the world’s financial centers are being felt in the most unlikely locations: Australia’s remote sheep stations.

Fewer investment bankers buying cool wool suits are hitting the world’s largest supplier of the luxury fleeces that when woven into yarn are used to make the finest threads from London’s Savile Row to Milan’s Via Montenapoleone, said weavers of the cloth.

William Lempriere, managing director of eponymous Australian manufacturer Lempriere–one of the country’s oldest wool companies–said demand across its main markets of China, Italy and North America has fallen since last year. Sales volumes for woven products are down between 5% to 15% and knitted products by 30% to 40% compared with 2010, and are well below pre-financial crisis peaks, he said.